A typical weekend

Well what did all you guys get up to over the weekend? Here is a fairly typical weekend for me at the moment. This Friday morning - Steve brings my breakfast in to me (yes he is sweet!) and then I get up to go to the airport to meet the new person who arrives on EK 841 from Dubai. Remember that Friday is the first day of our weekend, the working week starts Sunday. I stand by the wooden railing by the arrivals gate looking for the kiwi who resembles their passport photo. I am quite good at spotting kiwi teachers! They all look exhausted as they have just survived a flight with stopovers that takes over 24 hours.

Luckily the plane is on time and the luggage is there. I bundled them out of the airport and they experience THE HEAT! It is a balmy 47 ish a the moment and we also have humidity. This comes as quite a shock after they have left the NZ winter. I always drive them along the Corniche so that the see the green part of Qatar and the water because they will soon come to realise the rest of it is brown and flat ( with sand hills one end). However the building old and new are amazing and the place has real character not all glass and steel big city stuff.

We arrive at their apartment, get them settled, hook up the computer, explain the cell phone, give them a starter pack of information and give them some time to refresh before we take them out. We have also put some food etc in the apartments so that they can have cuppas and not worry about shopping straight away.

I have a break for an hour with a friend. I fill up with some water as we can't drink in public. Next it's back to Wesal apartments (that I can't help but call Weasel) and picked up Hazel and two other ladies that started during the week to take for an orientation drive. There are two purposes in this the first is so they can see a bit of Doha and the second is to keep them awake. If they sleep too early the jet lag sets in and it takes longer to get back into a routine.

I drive out to the golf club, walk them around the Dip Club and get a membership form if they think they would like to join. This weekend I went up to Al Khor so they could see the wharf, dhows and sea front their. No camels around though:-(
This photos shows the fishing dhows lined up at Al Khor wharf.

Back to the city, across to Villagio and Khalifa Stadium and then home. Next usually a bit of grocery shopping. Unfortunately it is Ramadan so we can't get a coffee. Then I dropped them back at their apartments. It was home for me to have a Nana nap!

Saturday I race around doing the things I need to do, get some groceries for me. I came home to do a bit of work and another friend, who is a consultant, rang and asked me to take her to the hospital as she wasn't feeling well. While going to the hospital sounds serious it is where the doctors hang out so that's where we go. An hour and a half later we are back, tea is cooking (thanks Steve for getting it started - yes he is sweet) and my friend Gaye is coming around for tea.

Now where did that weekend go because gosh it is work tomorrow!!